Cypriot Baked Macaroni (Makaronia tou Fournou)

Cyprus has its own version of the baked pasta dish that Greece calls pastitsio, and the difference that actually matters is the topping. Where Greek pastitsio goes to the trouble of a separate flour and milk bechamel, the Cypriot version mixes grated halloumi directly into beaten egg and pours that over the pasta instead, which sets into something closer to a savoury custard, salty and slightly springy rather than smooth and creamy.

The pasta itself is usually the same long, thick tubular shape used across Greek and Cypriot baked pasta dishes, and the meat sauce underneath follows the same cinnamon-led spicing that marks out this whole family of dishes from an Italian bake.

It is a genuinely simpler dish than pastitsio in one respect: no roux to get wrong, no risk of a bechamel splitting or going lumpy. What it asks for instead is a good halloumi, since that topping is doing all the work a whole separate sauce usually does.

Key preparation steps

1. Cook the pasta short of al dente, since it finishes in the oven.
2. Reduce a cinnamon-spiced meat sauce until thick.
3. Beat eggs with a generous quantity of grated halloumi.
4. Layer, pour the egg and halloumi topping over, and bake until set and golden.

The halloumi and egg topping

Grate halloumi coarsely rather than finely, so it keeps some texture within the set egg rather than disappearing into a smooth paste. Beat the eggs well first, then stir in the grated cheese along with a little milk to loosen it slightly and help it pour evenly.

This topping sets firmer than a bechamel does, closer to a frittata than a white sauce, and it browns attractively rather than staying pale, which is one of the visual differences that marks this dish out as distinctly its own rather than simply a lazier pastitsio.

The meat sauce

Minced beef or a beef and pork mix, cooked down with onion, garlic, tomato and the same cinnamon and bay leaf spicing that defines Greek pastitsio and moussaka. Reduce it until thick and nearly dry, since a wet sauce will seep up through the egg topping rather than staying in its own layer.

Some households add a spoonful of the cooking liquid from boiling the pasta to loosen the sauce very slightly if it has gone too far, though err on the side of too dry rather than too wet.

Assembling and baking

Layer the part-cooked pasta in a deep dish, spoon over the meat sauce and mix it through roughly rather than keeping perfectly separate layers, which is how this dish is more commonly built than the strict layering of pastitsio. Pour the halloumi and egg mixture evenly over the top.

Bake until the top is deeply golden and just set with barely a wobble in the centre, similar to checking a frittata for doneness. Let it rest for fifteen minutes before cutting, since the egg topping needs that time to firm up enough to hold clean squares.

What matters in this dish